|
|
|
Orange has the only 3G transmitter here. For just over a year, it worked OK, main problem is the unreliability, (I can never be sure it will work when doing something time critical. e.g. banking, auctions, urgent email etc.)
Last weekend it was utterly unusable, it would connect, drop to GPRS, got half a web page, then stop. Takes two minutes to disconnect, another two to authenticate, then Google home page when lucky and stop again. Even at 4 am !
Since earlier last week it at least works, but, although it initially shows 3G signal it only connects in GPRS and sometimes Edge.
I would like to know if orther people had the same problems, is it related to the network merger ?
I will check with Orange & T-Mob when I get a chance to go to town.
Regards,
Martin
|
|
|
Not with Orange/TMob but sounds like my Vodafone games on journeys into London.
With people leaving phones on 24/7 it may be periodic checks and number of sessions on the tower, rather than data throughput
|
|
The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
|
|
|
|
Have had problems with Orange for the last 2 weeks in the NW Kent area and also yesterday in City of London - where it struggled to get 2g signal.
T-Mobile signal is worse still. Don't know what they've done to make it all go wrong.
|
|
Register (or login) on our website and you will not see this ad.
|
|
|
Not down to the Orange / t-mobile cell sharing deal, as the current arrangment is only around 2G services (although 3G services will follow soon-ish)
If you are connecting to 3G and its then dropping to GPRS or EDGE, the dongle / cell site cannot sustain a strong enough signal so they drop your network access to something more reliable.
In this case 2G (GPRS and EDGE)
3G cell sites breathe, the more users on a cell the smaller the coverage becomes, a year ago there may have been less users on the cell but you were on the edge of the coverage footprint.
More people over time have started to use 3G iphones etc.. and your service area has now shrunk more!
If you want to post or PM me your postcode, i'll take a look.
If you think it's something else you need to get another Orange handset / dongle in the same location to see if it shows the same issues.
If so then phone Orange and ask to open a network fault.
Paul
|
|
|
If you want to post or PM me your postcode, i'll take a look.
It's ME17 4BS, I have Orange phone which gets good signal, but it's ancient 2G phone.
Thanks, regards,
Martin
|
|
|
|
Hi, the share of network would have no effect on the performance.
Its purely limited to mobile (not dongles), if you are on Orange for example as long as your phone can pick up any Orange signal no matter how weak it won't try an connect to a 2g tmobile signal.
Increase in 2g use with more and more 3g enabled phone are proving to be problem for many work. Specially when they left on connected to the 3g network..
Also regarding you 2g phone, that would get good signal as 2g mode is lot reliable than 3g. So if you 2g phone getting strong signal does not mean you will get good 3g signal.
Phone orange on 150 and choose option 3.
Also them to check the mast in you local area and to see if any of them is suffering congestion.
|
|
|
|
The poor performance continues. The signal on my dongle is up and down from five bars to nothing in a moment, occasionally it connect in 3G mode, only to stall couple of minutes later.
I have to redial every 5 to 10 min., even now at 02:00 hrs.
Surely it can't be congestion...
Martin
|
|
|
|
mast can only take x amount of connections , the busier the mast get the small area it covers. Congestion can also cause problem as there too much data to handle and the backhaul can't cope. I am in the office on sunday so will try and remember to have a look. and see what going
|
|
|
|
Same here in Manchester area on my iPhone since updating to Orange/TMobile. Data signal drops completely for long periods in areas that I know have at least GPRS or 3G. Very poor - sort it out Orange!
|
|
|
|
OP here.
I have re-checked Orange coverage map, and according to it I should have excellent signal for all services, including 3G.
This afternoon I have had brief 3G connection (just checking emails), first time in 10 days.
Will see what happens later tonight.
Regards,
Martin
|
|
|
|
In the BR5 area Orange has been virtually invisible fro the last 3 weeks, even on 2g. Barely get a single bar on T-mobile on GPRS so that's not an option either.
|
|
|
|
Hi I have been with Orange for years and have got by on their 2G network. Recently I got the Iphone and have found that their 3G signal is appalling in SE London where I live, also in Kent and even on Charing Cross station which they tell me is due to being a blind spot. I am unable to use 3G at all so rely on 2G which means that most webpages will not open. Since signing up for their T Mobile/Orange partnership things have gotten worse and I now notice that even my 2 G network drops out several times a day because I get a message saying network lost but no connection to T Mobile. I only use 30 minutes a month from a 600 minutes a month contract and wanted the Iphone for mobile browsing which I cannot do meaning that I pay £35 a month for a piece of metal and plastic that sometimes makes and receives phone calls. Though Orange accept that I am not able to get a 3G service or open webpages they say that I can make and receive calls most of the time and that is all that meets contractual obligations. I have carried out comparisons with friends who have the Iphone but with different providers and they are able to get mobile browsing consistently where I can�t. They use O2 and Vodaphone. It does seem as if I am tied into my Orange contract for the next 2 years but ASAP I will leave and go with a company that can supply a service and I suggest anyone who is considering using Orange do some careful research first.
Ps: sorry for posting anonymous, I will lig in next time.
|
|
|
|
OP here again.
Although my 3G reception was better this week, it was still not as good as previously.
After talking to Orange CS again, I have persuaded them to send me new, improved reception, "Option 515m" 7.2Mbs dongle. Though they insisted I "sign" for another 12 months.
Will report if it improves things, when it arrives.
Regards,
Martin
|
|
|
In reply to a post by Anonymous:
Although my 3G reception was better this week, it was still not as good as previously.
After talking to Orange CS again, I have persuaded them to send me new, improved reception, "Option 515m" 7.2Mbs dongle. Though they insisted I "sign" for another 12 months.
Will report if it improves things, when it arrives.
Regards,
Martin
I have been having exactly the same problem. I've been on Orange for a couple of years with no problems at all. I have had good signal strength (still do but now with poor data through put) and used to get 1.5 -2 MB. Whilst the sharing should not effect the mobile broadband it does seem one hell of a coincidence that my problems started, as did other posters here, when the merger happened.
CS wanted me to sign up for another stint with them to get the latest dongle, but I told them I would not be signing for a further period until they sort out the mess. For me it's stale-mate, though I'm seriously considering pushing to end my contract.
|
|
|
|
Option is a good brand, much better than the rubbish O2 and Vodafone supply. If you want to stay on the same contract have you considered buying the modem yourself? The modem would also be unlocked so you can easily switch providers.
|
|
|
Same problems.
Was on vodafone when got my iPhone 4 and switched to orange. It was good coverage and adequate 3G service, after the signal sharing I can't use it any more. It shows full 3G but data doesn't work at all and drops out eventually. Same thing on the iPad, which is why I decided to use the o2 sim for that.
Central London is where it's the worst, but I think its bad anywhere from my experience. Don't know what to do and where to go! I've been on o2, vodafone and orange, they're all equally poor...
Edited by Saltank (Mon 01-Nov-10 12:59:35)
|
|
|
|
O2 has gone down the proverbial pan in central London. I've had to switch my iPad away to 3 because of the near collapse in service from O2. I also noticed O2 took away HSPA in my post code so upload speed is back to slow. O2 mobile broadband speed has also been cut in half. Switching the iPhone is more difficult, 3 doesn't have very good 2G hand over by all accounts and the others seem just as slow as O2.
|
|
|
|
Yes I'll give 3 a go next (for my iPad). I really dislike the image compression that I can't seem to bypass using the o2 mSIM.
But still, disappointing about Orange screwing something up, I was hoping they would live up to giving me the best signal everywhere I go... on the bright side I can make voice calls without any problems whatsoever (as compared to Vodafone when I would constantly get dropped calls).
|
|
|
|
Forced image compression is the worst feature of O2's product. Unfortunately you can't bypass the proxy using the iPad APN because it isn't provisioned and we're barred from using mobile.o2.co.uk - the only APN that's able to do it.
|
|
|
|
My experience with Orange, both as a Mobile BB provider and with an iPhone 3GS, both on contract, has been no different to the original poster.
The service has been utterly unusable in Manchester and on the Wirral for as long as I have had the misfortune of being an Orange customer.
I did a speed test once at 9pm at a bar on Burton Road called Verso which is next to an Orange 3G mast and got 17kbps down and 21kbps up. I think that is probably the best result I've ever seen.
My situation now is that tied into an 'Airtime agreement', I have now put away the Netbook and dongle permanently as unusable and I have had to completely switch off all cellular data on my iPhone. To use my iPhone, I now have a Huawei E585 dongle on 3 PAYG which works pretty much consistently. I can even stream online radio with only 3 short dropouts on my 50 mile commute.
I have now cancelled my DD with Orange, and I have decided that they can have some money when they provide a service. I'm up for a fight, and I couldn't care less what 'damage' they do to my 'credit rating' as I don't really need one.
|
|
|
|
Yo, I also have had shocking signals. I have a t mobile dongle that was always great 3g signal.....now gprs......I have an orange work phone that is better but used to be shocking in this area.....but all around the country both are terrible. I dont know what they have done buts its deffo worse. What can we all do?Dingo 07
|
|
|
|
OP here again.
Good news.
Reminder: At the beginning of November I started to have problems with my Orange MB, always dropping to GPRS at just 5Kb/s and frequently disconnecting.
Eventually (they promised two weeks ago, but nothing happened, second time I was lucky, got someone who knew what they were doing !) I got Orange to give me the Option 515m dongle FOC, (but extending my contact to another 12 months).
Yes, it works lot better, keeping steady connection and 3G mode most of the time, though the actual speed varies.
However, while my old Huavei works happily on 1.5m of USB two piece cable,
the Option will only work with one piece 1m cable.
Regards,
Martin
|
|
|
|
I'm getting this problem now, I have the T-Mobile web n walk stick, and I usually get a strong signal. Now it struggles to hold a 3G connection, GPRS works perfectly. When I first got it in Nov 2008 it was fine until about Nov 2010 when the 3G problem appeared. The connection manager shows it is connected but they is no data downstream, on upstream data (which I assume it is trying to reconnect to the network). Any help?
|
|
|
|
You might be unlucky to have been near one of the 5,000 sites that was switched off in the T-Mobile / 3 transmitter merging process that ended recently.
Regards,
jayteedc
|
|
|
|
2g will always out preform 3g, is a more dependable signal, downside is that its slow
|
|
|
|
Original poster here.
I have perusaded Orange to send me their 'new' and improved Option 515 3G+ dongle,
at the 'price' of extending my contact for 12 more months.
It has significantly improved the situation. I get 3G connection and resonable speeds most of the time. Occasionaly there are still connection and stalling problems,
usually I just give up an try later, having lot more confidence it will work.
The dongle switches seemlesly from 3G+ to 3G, E or G, and back UP again. The old one did not go back up, and often dropped the connection altogether.
Regards,
Martin
|
Pages in this thread: 
Print Thread
bookey